Ans Westra’s truly remarkable career spans over 50 years, awarded an Arts Foundation NZ Icon Award for 2007, Ans is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated photographers. Westra predicated her work on a concept of humanism, with the camera as a tool of social consience and a means of expressing her reverence and affirmation of life. Photographic commentator Peter Turner once stated: “I think Ans Westra has a message for us. Not always comfortable, but consistently powerful. I think it’s a statement of love, exploration and adventure. Most of all it is a tale of commitment and expectation – to a nation and a medium which can express that belief in worth and human dignity... she pictures what she has seen and trusts us to believe her.”

Born in 1936 in Leiden, Holland, it was her stepfather’s camera that sparked Ans’ early interest in photography. “ as a teenager I had a stepfather who owned a Leica camera, and he had taken a lot of photographs. That exposed me to photography. We went to see the Family of Man exhibition which made a big impression on me – the enjoyment, the variety of people. I also found I had an affinity with photography, I could express more with it than with anything else. “ In 1953 she moved to Rotterdam and studied at the Industrieschool voor Meisjes. Ans traveled to New Zealand after graduation in 1957 with a Diploma in Arts and Craft Teaching.

Westra’s career is remarkable in many respects. When she began working, photography in New Zealand was barely visible. Known particularly for her photographs of Maori, when Ans arrived in NZ she remembers that there wasn’t “a lot of real documentation being done. The books that came out on the Maori were very much aimed at the tourist market – very, very formal and posed. So my pictures were more natural ones and stood out that way. I was wanting to observe life as it happened, without interrupting it as much as possible. Much of her earlier work was produced for publications such as the Department of Maori Affairs journal Te Ao Hou and various journals and bulletins published by the School Publications Branch of the Department of Education. She has also produced four major photographic books.

Her first international recognition came in 1960 when she won a prize from the UK Photography magazine for her work entitled Assignment No.2, 1962. In the mid-1980s her contribution to the development of social documentary photography was acknowledged in the exhibition Witness to Change (1985), where her work represented ’the 1960s’.

After decades of working predominantly in black and white, Ans has found a passion for colour. Ans’ Pleasure Garden Series encapsulates the essence of her ability to capture life. Nature - its beauty and constantly changing qualities enable it to be a constant source of inspiration for the photographer.

Ans’ most recent show, Toy-Land, addresses the souvenir market and the way we choose to represent ourselves to the world. These works are a testament to an artist’s ability to grow and constantly explore different ways of seeing.